Global genomic analyses of wheat powdery mildew reveal association of pathogen spread with historical human migration and trade

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31975-0
• Publication Date: 2022-07-26T08:02:58Z
• Authors: Alexandros G. Sot...; Epifanía Arango-I...; Tomohiro Ban; Chiara Barbieri; Salim Bourras; Christina Cowger; Paweł C. Czembor; Roi Ben-David; Amos Dinoor; Simon R. Ellwood; Johannes Graf; Koichi Hatta; Marcelo Helguera; Javier Sánchez-Ma...; Bruce A. McDonald; Alexey I. Morgounov; Marion C. Müller; Vladimir Shamanin; Kentaro K. Shimizu; Taiki Yoshihira; Helen Zbinden; Beat Keller; Thomas Wicker
• Keywords: Science; Human Migration; General Physics and Astronomy; 1600 General Chemistry; Genetics and Molecular Biology; Trigo; Poaceae; Variación Genética; Article; UFSP13-7 Evolution in Action: From Genomes to Ecosystems; 10127 Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies; 03 medical and health sciences; 10126 Department of Plant and Microbial Biology; 1300 General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology; Fungal Evolution; Humans; 10211 Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center; Fungal Genomics; Triticum; Plant Diseases; 2. Zero hunger; 1000 Multidisciplinary; 0303 health sciences; Multidisciplinary; Q; Genetic Variation; General Chemistry; Genomics; 15. Life on land; 3100 General Physics and Astronomy; General Biochemistry; Wheat; 570 Life sciences; biology; 590 Animals (Zoology); mildew genomes; Blumeria Graminis

AbstractThe fungusBlumeria graminisf. sp.triticicauses wheat powdery mildew disease. Here, we study its spread and evolution by analyzing a global sample of 172 mildew genomes. Our analyses show thatB.g. triticiemerged in the Fertile Crescent during wheat domestication. After it spread throughout Eurasia, colonization brought it to America, where it hybridized with unknown grass mildew species. Recent trade brought USA strains to Japan, and European strains to China. In both places, they hybridized with local ancestral strains. Thus, although mildew spreads by wind regionally, our results indicate that humans drove its global spread throughout history and that mildew rapidly evolved through hybridization.